Long Summer Modified Gregorian Calendar
This proposed calendar is a solar calendar based around the equinoxes and solstices, and takes into consideration that the number of days in each solar quarter are different due to the earth's off-center orbit around the sun. This calendar continues the precedent of 12 months and 365 or 366 days per calendar year as set by the Gregorian and other calendars. Measuring the solar quarters as the time between equinox and solstice, I have observed that the earth spends more time in the spring and summer quarters than in the winter and fall quarters. In the northern hemisphere each of the solar quarters are measured as follows: *The spring quarter is a little less than 93 days. (Spring Equinox to Summer Solstice) *The summer quarter is a little less than 94 days. (Summer Solstice to Fall Equinox) *The fall quarter is a little less than 90 days. (Fall Equinox to Winter Solstice) *The winter quarter is a little less than 89 days. (Winter Solstice to Spring Equinox) 93 (Spring) + 94 (Summer) + 90 (Fall) + 89 (Winter) = 366 days = one leap year. In the following table I have divided each of these solar quarters by 3 and assigned the days to months: This totals to 366 days which is fine for leap years, but 1 day must be subtracted on standard years. Standard Years 366 days will not work on standard years. Therefore I have chosen July as the month to shorten by 1 day for three reasons: #Summer quarter is actually about 93.66 days long which is not quite 94 days. Since the actual lengths of the other solar quarters are closer to their rounded numbers, summer quarter is the best choice for subtracting a day on standard years. #July is the longest month and the only month with 32 days, so it can handle giving up a day. #We are already familiar with July as a month with only 31 days. Leap Years *Just like the Gregorian calendar, leap years are 366 days. *Leap years are computed based on the vernal equinox. When the vernal equinox falls on the 21st of March (GMT) then the same year is a leap year. That effectively brings the equinox back to the 20th on the following year. That means that leap years happen every 4 or 5 years. Benefits of this calendar *Quarter lengths more accurately match the actual lengths of each solar quarter by putting the longer months in the spring and summer months where the earth spends most of its time. This also illuminates the fact that earth's off-center orbit literally adds a few days to the spring and summer months. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Seasons1.svg *On standard years, the 31-days months are consecutive making them easier to remember. The 30-day months are also consecutive. *We are already familiar with February as the shortest month of the year. *All of the months have familiar 30- or 31-day lengths, except for February which is a 29-day month, and July which has 32 days on leap years. *Leap years are computed based on the vernal equinox which means that unlike the Gregorian calendar it is not possible to be in error. *The Gregorian calendar can go for as many as 8 years without having a leap year. But this calendar never goes more than 5 years without having a leap year. This is more accurate since an extra day must always be account for after 4 or 5 standard years. This is because every standard year .24219878 days are not accounted for. *There are 6 months in this calendar that match closely to an actual lunar month of 29.53 days. The Gregorian calendar only has 4 on a standard year. *The longer months happen intuitively during the time of year when the days are also longer for the northern hemisphere. *The months of this calendar more closely match the time the earth spends in each section of the tropical zodiac. *The equinoxes and solstices always happen at the same time of the month and so are easier to remember. If the new calendar were to be implemented on January 1 of 2010, then here is when the equinoxes and solstices would occur (times are GMT): Drawbacks *The business quarters are different lengths. The Gregorian calendar also has business quarters of different lengths but these quarters differ even more than in the Gregorian calendar. Ideally business quarters should be the same length. If you wanted to distribute the 31-day months more evenly, you could still have a shorter winter quarter by putting the 30-day months in Dec-Feb, and then alternating the 31-days months after that beginning with March. In that case January would be the ideal place to add a leap day on leap year. The business quarters would then all be either 91 or 92 days, and every 31-day month would be followed by a 30-day month. *A 32-day month is not desirable because it would be better to have all months be familiar lengths of 30 or 31 days. Alternatively you could make February the leap month (as we are already familiar) giving February 30 days instead of 29 on leap years. But then the vernal equinox and the summer solstice would come a day earlier in the month than expected on leap years. *A 29-day month is not desirable, because it would be better if all of the months were about the same length. To accomplish that, you could make February a day longer and March a day shorter giving them both 30 days, then all the months would always either be 30 or 31 days long. But then the vernal equinox would come a day earlier in the month than the other equinox and solstices, and that would sort of defeat the purpose of this calendar. But maybe that wouldn't be too big a sacrifice. If you moved leap day to March, the summer solstice would also come a day earlier in the month on leap years. *This calendar does not propose any major benefit that would necessarily be worth the undertaking of changing the current calendar system worldwide. *Holidays like Halloween and New Years Eve would have to be changed to the 30th, because October and December would each lose their 31st day. January would also lose a day. Similar Calendars *Solar Hejri calendar: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iranian_calendars#Details_of_the_modern_calendar *Abib calendar: http://www.digisys.net/abib/ *Nanakshahi calendar: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nanakshahi_calendar Daylight Saving Time Standardization option Daylight saving time came into effect because the days in the spring and summer are longer than the nights, and so politicians realized that by setting the clocks ahead 1 hour, an hour of morning daylight would be shifted to the evenings. And since its implemenation it has been shown to save energy because people don't have to use as much electricity in the evenings and are generally asleep and not using electricity in the mornings. But not everyone has been able to agree on exactly when daylight saving time should be implemented if at all. Since the days are not longer than the nights until the equinoxes, I suggest that daylight saving time be standardized so that time changes always occur on the Sundays closest to the equinoxes worldwide. This would make the day of setting clocks the same day in the Northern Hemisphere as in the Southern Hemisphere, making it standard for the first time worldwide. Daylight saving time in the northern hemisphere would be 6 months instead of the current 7 months or so. The southern hemisphere would also get to enjoy a similar 6 months of daylight saving time instead of the current 4 months or so. I propose that on the Sundays nearest the equinoxes that each country or region that observes daylight saving time change their clocks at 2am local time.